Lucky Thing I Didn’t Book Time Off Work And Take a Long Trek To Dollard-des-Ormeaux

Well, well, well, all are not welcome at Harpercon rallies, it would appear. First, this,  from a Conservative who attended a rally where he learned of folks being turned away, and not because of overcrowding neither.

I received an email this morning from a Conservative friend (not from my riding) who was in attendance. He told of reporters not being permitted to ask many questions. There were massive security checks and people were tossed out of the venue for their relations to the Liberal party. People were turned away for not having identification. He said that was it for him. He had been experiencing difficulty with the Harper approach in the last couple of years but the rally convinced him it was time to move on. He doesn’t know how, or if, he’ll vote in this campaign, but he can no longer support the PM.

ID? Security checks? I’ve been to several Liberal events like town halls and I was at the Liberal rally in Montreal. I don’t recall ever going through any security checks or being requested ID.  Just a sign in.  And yes, there were tea-party types at some of these events attempting to stump Iggy or a Liberal MP or candidate who would’ve been accompanying him.

I didn’t have the chance to go to the NDP or the Bloc rallies as the NDP rally was held during my work day and didn’t find out until it was too late. I have one of those jobs where I have to give advanced notice as a replacement has to be found for me.  I am no longer on the Bloc’s mailing list.  I’m quite certain that all are welcome at their events and there are no ‘security checks’ to get in and that all are welcome who are willing to listen and of course, who behave.

There is a similar story of another Harpercon rally that corroborates this anonymous Conservative’s account. It appears that  some university students, who took the time to register online for Stevie Spiteful’s London event, were turned away at the door.

Awish Aslam, a 19-year-old University of Western Ontario student, said she wept after getting the boot.

“I’ve never voted in a federal election before,” she said. “We just repeated we were only there to listen.”

Aslam and a friend registered online to attend Harper’s Sunday rally – part of the restrictions the Conservatives place on such events.

About 30 minutes after arriving and signing in, the two girls were asked by a man to follow him out of the rally, Aslam said. Though confused, they complied.

In a back room, Aslam said he ripped off their name tags, tore them up and ordered them out.

“We were confused. He said, ‘We know you guys have ties to the Liberal party through Facebook’. He said … ‘You are no longer welcome here.’”

Another attendee, Ali Aref Hamadi, said he was asked by an organizer to leave the same rally because of an NDP bumper sticker on his vehicle.

Wow! I wonder how many other such stories there are of folks being turned away at Harpercon rallies there are? One would think that in a quest for that coveted majority, they’d be somewhat more accommodating.

Even more frightening is that after one registers on line, the organizers of Harpercon events are actually spending their days, performing background checks on their attendees.  This brings me to another point. Since they’re obviously taking pain’s taking care to check facebook pages and look at bumper stickers on cars of attendees, but, supposedly, they missed Bruce Carson’s background check before giving him top clearances to work in Stevie’s ivory tower? I digress…

I actually knew about the rally enough in advance that a replacement could’ve been found for me at work, and I really was playing with the idea of going. I had always wanted to see Stevie Spiteful live and in person, because I always wanted to know what made a person like him tick the way that he does. Call it morbid curiosity. I also wanted to observe the mood of the room; reactions; it’s one of the reasons I go to political events.  However, I decided against booking the time off as public transport in DDO really sucks and it’s a good hour and a half trip for me.   I hadn’t been all that well, and didn’t feel like fighting public transit for all that time.   After reading those two accounts, I’m glad I didn’t waste the trip or a half day’s pay.

Why the hell are the Harpercons still polling in majority territory?